the case at law, on which depends the succession to the Riverside estate and honors, will soon be brought to a decision, but, while it is pending, the Rector of Richmanstown, now with more rubicund face and bilious aspect, wears the appearance of a man who is ill at ease. Conscience tells, though as yet wealth, honors and a goodly person, titled acquaintances and an eminent name, provoke the envy of some, who wish that they "could only change places with Dr. Bushwig." Invisible Nemesis has suspended her keen sword by the solitary hair, which at any moment may part its filaments, and there is one who sees it; one who dreams by night that evermore a little child stands between him and the coronet, whispering in that haunting tone that will not be silent, "The Lord sent me: I am Charity Green.”

Miss Arabella Flummery is no more a spinster. Failing in her effort to captivate the Rev. and Hon. Alphonso Bushwig by such delicate attentions as flowered dressing gowns and Turkish smoking caps, and, in spite of many asseverations to the contrary, having no belief that matrimony ever was injudicious, donning such befitting garments as best might aid the enterprise, the artful fair one went forth, not fly fishing, or duck shooting, but Bumblefuzzing. Well was she acquainted with the various eddies and currents of the tarn in which her expected victim sailed majestically or sunned his basking sides, or darted to and fro in search of prey. Arrows from the blind boy, who is yet the best of all sharp shooters, if at her command, were snugly hidden from their victim.

In the northern woods of America are deeps where many of the noblest salmonides, styled lakers by brothers of the angle, hide away a hundred feet below the surface. The successful sportsman must go a day or two before and bait the spot where he designs to bring up from his solitude the father of them all, perhaps with entrails of some fat wether,

or better still, a stag's head. The wary Arabella, approaching the deep waters of the scientific pool in which her prize takes refuge from all feminine arts and artifices, baited him beforehand with a phrenological cast.

Crochet-work and embroidery, the transferring of prints and the manufacture of flannel waistcoats were relinquished, as the employments of the female in a lower stage of mental progress; and now the demure lips announced the lady's conversion to the great development theory, which is to renovate the race by superior specimens of the rising generation, in whom original sin is eradicated and a philosophical and moral organization, impeccable in quality, produced by the substitution of the strictly scientific mode of selecting married associates, by craniological examination and adaptation, for the nonsense of courtships and marri ages where the heart bears sway.

Dr. Bumblefuz delivers his annual lecture before the Richmanstown-cum-Sloppery Association for the development of science and the advancement of mankind. Clad in bewitching attire, with tasteful, modern bonnet, gay with interwoven roses and laurels jauntily perched upon the organ of philoprogenitiveness, crowning the highly progressed moral faculties with a symbolical wreath, and affording a flowery background for the display of amply cultured intellectual powers, brought into bold relief and gracefully set off by perfumed tresses not her own, Miss Arabella Flummery appeared conspicuous.

Did the learned and distinguished lecturer observe the kidded hands that clapped applause, the gold pencil that took notes, the intellectual countenance that beamed approval? This is not for us to say, not being in the confidence of philosophers; but, if the experienced damsel was edified on this occasion, and sat like the clay at the root of the rose tree, absorbing its ripe aromas, a soiree at the mansion of the Widow Snuggles soon after, afforded opportunity of

repaying science and philosophy with treble compound interest.

The piano was in tune, nor did the widow seem out of tune. Like a bridegroom elect, the Rev. Dapper Flummery, B. A., assisted, vis-a-vis with the hospitable entertainess in doing the honors. The jolly crumpets laughed at being eaten, and the orange marmalade melted like adorable sixteen at a rosy billet-doux. They had forfeits and a game of hunt-the-slipper for the young folks, and, up stairs, in the apartment recently vacated by the tobacconist, Brobose, a quiet whist table or two for elderly gentlemen and ladies. Dapper eyed the hostess as the poet Thompson used to regale himself, in anticipation, on rare ripe peaches within reach, on the garden wall, like a royal guest in a Castle of Indolence, as he was, slowly making up his lips for the approaching feast. At about ten were served sandwiches and rout cake, on little trays, with a delicate mixture, of which sugar, lemons, nutmeg and Scotch whiskey, were the principal ingredients, nicely sweetened and a little milder for the ladies as being the weaker vessel, and more potent for the lords of creation. There was delicate canary besides.

Dr. Bumblefuz dropped in about this time, not that he was partial to sandwiches or needed the stimulus of spirits, but to enjoy an intellectual and philosophical conversation.

Epaphroditus Wagge was also a guest, and, being called upon by the hostess for a toast, with hand on heart and a polite inclination toward the widow, drank, "Connubial felicity." The merry guests called out the curate to respond on the part of their entertainer, and the graceful youth, at home evidently in the residence of the late Mr. Stephen Snuggles, responded in a neat speech, commencing with a classical allusion and closing with a quotation from one of the fathers. Thereupon a parishioner drank to the Rev. Dapper Flummery's promotion to a bishopric, while

the widow softly and silently whispered to herself, "I hope he won't be bishop of Bangolore."

Then Miss Arabella Flummery, just touching the edge of the little glass to display the whitest of teeth, put in order and replenished by an eminent dentist on her last visit to the Metropolis, proposed, "Science, especially cra niological science, and its distinguished promoters." The Past High Mitre, filling the glass of the savan and slyly mixing it a "thrifle sthronger," as Patrick might say, dropped in the remark that "He was half inclined to be a convert himself, and hoped that, instead of wasting the precious hours in new games, his young friends present might be edified by some practical tests of the developments of craniums." "There, for instance," he wound up by observing "is our young friend, Miss Flummery. Perhaps she, being a proficient, will consent to be blindfolded. A committee will then select a candidate for the honor of a phrenological examination at her hands." They selected Bumblefuz.

As the widow Snuggles bound the hankerchief over the eyes of the wary Bumblefuzzer, some merry sprite whispered, "Just leave a little peep hole," and the peep hole was left. Solemn silence reigned while the committee, requesting that no one should mention the name of the gentleman who was about to be submitted to the test, led up our modern Galen, now exhilarated by the libation in honor of science and its founders. The sly minx peeped, as what woman could help doing, called upon the genius of all the Flummeries to pour the oil of blarney upon her tongue's end, and began slowly:

"A remarkable character! A stranger, doubtless. Who in Sloppery has a head like this? Benevolence seven; conscientiousness seven plus; acquisitiveness three; alimentiveness two; ideality seven; sublimity the same. A remarkable character. This head, ladies and gentlemen, presents a combination of the peculiar and distinguishing character.

istics of Bacon, Spurzheim and Dr. Franklin." Tapping the forehead, the oracle exclaimed, "Here science has its throne. The perceptive and the intellectual faculties, developed to an extraordinary fullness, indicate a mind far in advance of his species." Then, with a soft simper, the erudite enchantress ventured the remark, that, "if married, he would be one of the fondest and most faithful of husbands." The Past High Mitre could restrain hinself no longer. Knowing the great man's weakness to a dot, he chimed in, "Capital! I leave it you, ladies and gentlemen, if Miss Flummery could have described the character of Dr. Bumblefuz better with her eyes open ?"

Soon after, Miss Arabella Flummery was slightly indisposed, and Science paid Beauty a professional call. The windows of the boudoir, artfully darkened and shaded, cast a soft, crimson lustre on the bewitching Arabella. The county journal, containing a report of Dr. Bumblefuz's lecture on the laws of universal development, lay upon the table near at hand. The most capacious of easy chairs received the visitor. Of course, the conversation was eminently intellectual. With the invalid's privilege, the spinster's tapering fingers rested, apparently in their inadvertence, on the doctor's coat sleeve, while the languid voice murmured that "The recuperative power of ideas was truly wonderful; that in the morning she was quite an invalid. Thanks to the county journal and the mental feast which she had enjoyed, an illness of a fortnights' standing had been cured by the power of philosophy."

"Ah!" said the Doctor, "you are right Madam. It is philosophy that is to renovate the world. We develope, Madam, we develope. The future looms up like a phrenological Ararat with the ark of the progress of the species resting upon its summit. The great man, the man of the future, is yet to come."

Now Arabella, thou canst never have a better opening.